Technology for Basic Education: A Luxury or a Necessity?
Wadi D. Haddad, Editor

If we perceive basic education only in terms of basic literacy, numeracy and rudimentary life skills, then technology is a luxury. However, basic education for all in a modern world entails more than the conventional recipe. The new economic and societal challenges force us to think of basic education as a learning activity, anytime, anywhere, and for everyone. To achieve that, technology is a necessity.

A Vision for Basic Education in the New Century
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF

All children must have access to school and be able to stay there, in order to achieve basic education. There must be good quality “second chance” education for adolescents and youth who have never been in school. There should be a focus on the needs of those most disadvantaged and excluded from learning, both in and out of school – girls, working children, children of ethnic minorities, and children affected by violence and conflict, HIV/AIDS and disabilities.

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Basic Education for All: Global Report Card

Throughout this past decade, many countries have made concerted and significant efforts toward the goal of basic education for all. The results constitute a mixed picture of many successes and as many obstacles. This article provides an overview of the state of basic education across the globe.

Literacy, Technological Literacy and the Digital Divide
Daniel A. Wagner, Director and Professor, International Literacy Institute, University of Pennsylvania & UNESCO

The changing standards of literacy and technological literacy will likely produce a situation in which a digital divide will persist well into the future. However, in the area of information and communication technology use and access, we can take steps that will narrow this gap, but only by paying special attention to literacy issues.

Multi-grade Schools and Technology
Laurence Wolff and Norma Garcia, Inter-American Development Bank

Multi-grade schools will not disappear but are essential for achieving basic education for all. There are proven methodologies for making the multi-grade school a modern, progressive and effective vehicle for learning. Existing and new technologies ought to be exploited to implement these methodologies.

TechKnowNews

Governor Would Give Every Student a Laptop  A Virtual Revolution in Teaching  First 'Digital Divide' Bill Passes Senate  Presentation of World View Information System for Basic Education NGOs in Africa and South Asia  A Bilingual Descriptive Database of 850 Education Projects in Africa, Now Accessible Online!  Technology Critic Takes on Computers in School  Internet Improves Kids' Attitude to School  Children Tutoring Seniors at Internet Skills

The Watering Hole: Creating Learning Communities with Computers
Mary Fontaine with Richard Fuchs, The LearnLink Project, Academy for Educational Development

Throughout the developing world, there is evidence that telecenters—a.k.a. Community Learning Centers—may be starting to create a social context for learning in the post-industrial economy. If the conviviality, sociability and cohesion of the `watering hole` can be brought to the business of learning, then the business of education and development will have done its job.

Interactive Mathematics for Basic Education: The Venezuelan Experience with IRI
Nora Ghetea Jaegerman and Victor Vasquez R.

This article describes an interactive radio instruction program in Venezuela for mathematics at the lower primary school level. Program accomplishments are summarized in the areas of production, implementation and evaluation.

Ethiopia: Educational Radio and Television
Thomas D. Tilson, Chief of Party, USAID.BESO Project and Demissew Bekele, General Manager, Educational Media Agency, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is fortunate to have a well-established and integrated system for using radio and television to support education based on over 30 years of experience. This article describes present radio and television programs that support primary, secondary and non-formal education as well as teacher training. It also highlights experience with digital radio.

Education for All - The Mass Media Formula
David Walker and Gajaraj Dhanarajan, The Commonwealth of Learning

In order to empower disadvantaged groups as equal partners in development, the limitations of formal and non-formal education are now being challenged. New ways to achieve mass education, that can be both efficient and effective, are being sought. This article describes the track record of community radio, the possibilities of going digital and the need for a new paradigm to reform broadcast licensing and regulating.

Computers for Children: From the Beaches of California to the Slums of India
Sonia Jurich

This article describes what happens when children encounter a computer for the first time. Do the children immediately interact with the computer, as if `equipped` with innate instructions for its use? Do they learn slowly, through trial and error? How far can they go without an adult's interference?

Status Report 1: Applying New Technologies in Basic Education
Hilary Perraton and Charlotte Creed, International Research Foundation for Open Learning

This article provides an overview of the introduction, use, effectiveness and cost of different technologies for basic education worldwide.

Status Report 2: Textbook and Learning Materials: Today and Tomorrow

This article analyzes the importance of textbooks and instructional materials, and provides an overview of their availability, quality and modes of provision. It also outlines future trends and offers recommendations resulting from a worldwide survey.

Information Systems for Education Management
Kurt Moses, Vice President, Academy for Educational Development

This article describes a framework for the use of information technology to create an education information system that meets the needs for information at three levels: policy, management and operations. The article walks the reader through software that illustrates this framework.

South Africa: Teacher Training in the Sky
Claire Brown, Violet Sithole & Robert Hofmeyr, Shoma Education Foundation, South Africa

This article describes a model of leveraging digital satellite technology to enhance the professional development of teachers, and outlines the positive and negative experiences in applying it in South Africa.

On the Move

Upcoming Events: Conference, Seminars, Exhibits, Training Courses, etc.

How to Evaluate Educational Software and Websites
Gregg B. Jackson, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Coordinator, George Washington University

There are approximately 20,000 educational software packages and many thousand educational websites throughout the world. How can you decide what is good and what is a waste of time?

Recycling Computers: A Simple Solution for a Complex Problem
Sonia Jurich

This article describes ways by which outdated computers in government and business offices can be recycled into schools. The issue, however, is that most computers that are being discarded no longer have software installed, and newer software packages do not work on them. The article describes a software that restores the core functionality of old computers.

WorthWhileWebs
Selected by Gregg B. Jackson, Vishnu Karki, and Sole McKinnon, George Washington University

The World Wide Web now offers extensive resources that can be useful in basic education. This Issue lists a wide range of sites that can be used by teachers or parents, and some that are intended to be used by the learners themselves to supplement their other educational activities.

Virtual Presentations: Wasting No Time
Jelena Lewis

This article describes technologies that allow you to take your prepared materials and your notes on the whiteboard and broadcast them over the web.

Tablets Are Back: Light and Fun
Rafael Chargel

A new series of digital devices are changing the ways we can produce information and keep the best of both worlds: the soft touch of a pen, and the many resources of a computer. These devices allow us to write and draw in traditional ways, sometimes using pen and paper, while creating digital copies of our notes and drawings that can be stored, copied, faxed, e-mailed, printed, and modified.

Copying as You Go: Making Scanning Easier
Jelena Lewis

For teachers, presenters, and students, scanners offer an easy way to incorporate images into a presentation and enliven an otherwise dry exchange of information. The article describes an array of portable and handheld scanners with multiple functions.

UNICEF and New Technologies

UNICEF launched two web sites; for youth and for teachers. UNICEF is also supporting Internet use for open learning. At the same time, it will continue to explore low-cost, accessible alternatives for peoples who cannot afford to pay for hi-tech resources, and who cannot access technology through using hi-tech tools.

From Jomtien to Dakar and Beyond
Svein Osttveit, Executive Secretary of the Education for All Forum

The author describes the beginnings of the Education for All movement in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, the biggest stocktaking of education in history leading to the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000, the Dakar framework for Action and the role of technology.

Academy for Educational Development: Connecting People - Creating Change
Stephen Moseley, President, Academy for Educational Development

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) is an independent, nonprofit organization committed to solving critical social problems in the United States and throughout the world through education, research, training, social marketing, policy analysis, and innovative program design and management. AED works at the frontiers of new thinking, new approaches, and new technologies.

The Commonwealth of Learning

What is the Commonwealth? What is the Commonwealth of learning? ` Our long-term aim is that any learner, anywhere in the Commonwealth, shall be able to study any distance-teaching program.`